In case anyone is interested. My brother has a E09K/E17 and I went over to his house with my HE-500 and surprisingly the E09K does a admirable job of driving them. As good as the Lyr or speaker taps? Nope, but still it would be a nice improvement for people who are just using the E17.

Just throwing out another cheap option for people who love the HE-500.

I've been seriously entertaining the thought of getting the O2 for my HE-500 because of all the love I've read about it, and recommendations given.

But I've read some believe it's simply not powerful enough to truly deliver the goods.

Could you guys give a short list of the powerful amps that do the HE-500 justice? From what I've read, anything around 2W is what people recommend (sorry if this sounds noobish, I know nothing about electrical engineering, all those numbers hurt my brain)

Ideally I'm looking at a similar budget, but I did buy the HE-500, so I'm probably willing to increase my budget in future by a few hundred [insert currency].

I've been seriously entertaining the thought of getting the O2 for my HE-500 because of all the love I've read about it, and recommendations given.

But I've read some believe it's simply not powerful enough to truly deliver the goods.

Could you guys give a short list of the powerful amps that do the HE-500 justice? From what I've read, anything around 2W is what people recommend (sorry if this sounds noobish, I know nothing about electrical engineering, all those numbers hurt my brain)

Ideally I'm looking at a similar budget, but I did buy the HE-500, so I'm probably willing to increase my budget in future by a few hundred [insert currency].

Everybody seems to be saying the Lyr does it justice, and that's what I'm aiming for next, currently got the Fiio E9.

I've been seriously entertaining the thought of getting the O2 for my HE-500 because of all the love I've read about it, and recommendations given.

But I've read some believe it's simply not powerful enough to truly deliver the goods.

Could you guys give a short list of the powerful amps that do the HE-500 justice? From what I've read, anything around 2W is what people recommend (sorry if this sounds noobish, I know nothing about electrical engineering, all those numbers hurt my brain)

Ideally I'm looking at a similar budget, but I did buy the HE-500, so I'm probably willing to increase my budget in future by a few hundred [insert currency].

I use an Audio-gd NFB-6 to power my HE-500 in a fully balanced chain with outstanding results. It delivers 5.92 watts into the '500's 38 ohms and was a bit over $500 including remote control and shipping from Hong Kong to the USA.

And now let's just imagine for a moment that my budget is slightly closer to the Zimbabwean dollar , are there any amps have balls and have seriously wow'ed (price/performance) and come very close to the more expensive ones?

I'm not looking for perfection, just the power to do my headphones justice.

The Audio-gd NFB-6 looks good, I'll definitely keep it on my list, but it's really at the TOP of my budget.

To put things into perspective I'm currently using a simple Fisher 80's stereo receiver as my headphone amp, and I think it sounds bloody brilliant.

And now let's just imagine for a moment that my budget is slightly closer to the Zimbabwean dollar , are there any amps have balls and have seriously wow'ed (price/performance) and come very close to the more expensive ones?

I'm not looking for perfection, just the power to do my headphones justice.

The Audio-gd NFB-6 looks good, I'll definitely keep it on my list, but it's really at the TOP of my budget.

To put things into perspective I'm currently using a simple Fisher 80's stereo receiver as my headphone amp, and I think it sounds bloody brilliant.

If you can afford the Audio Gd 6 I'd go with that as it's fully balanced.